DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0052
38 kirby’s wonderful museum.
peared like little globes of glass, were immoveable, and had
no eye-lids.
Ann. Reg. 1760, p. 148.
Ossification of the Tendons and Muscles.
The following account of the case of William Carey, aged
19, whose tendons and muscles turned to bone, is given in a
letter from the Rev. William Henry, to Lord Cadogan, dated
March 1, 1759, Castle Caldwell, near Inniskillen.
He was born in an island in Lough Melvil, a large lake in
the northern point of the county of Leitrim, in Ireland, and
has continued therein, or in the adjacent lands, ever since.
He was bred up to work as a labourer, and continued in
very good health, from his birth, until two years ago. About
that time he first felt an unusual pain in his right wrist, which
in August, 1757, began to swell; this obliged him to cease
from his usual labour. In the space of a month more, this
swelling grew into a hardness, like to a bony substance, and
continually shooting on, in December reached up as far as
die elbow; all the muscles continually growing into a bony
substance, and dilating, so that his wrist and arm are as thick
and broad as in the beginning. About the space of a week
after the pain began in his right wrist, he was seized with the
like pain in his left wrist; this has proceeded, in all respects,
in the same manner as in the right arm. The whole substance
of each arm, from the elbow down to the wrist, feels as it
were one solid bone.
The ossification is shooting downwards into the fingers,
and upwards into the elbows, so as already to prevent the
bending the fingers or elbow of the left arm; it has likewise
shot upwards, so as to seize the great muscles of each arm,
between the elbow and shoulders.
The continual pain and dilation of the arms occasioned a
bursting of the skin, and fleshy parts about each elbow, in
November 1757? out of which oozed a thin yellowish humour?
peared like little globes of glass, were immoveable, and had
no eye-lids.
Ann. Reg. 1760, p. 148.
Ossification of the Tendons and Muscles.
The following account of the case of William Carey, aged
19, whose tendons and muscles turned to bone, is given in a
letter from the Rev. William Henry, to Lord Cadogan, dated
March 1, 1759, Castle Caldwell, near Inniskillen.
He was born in an island in Lough Melvil, a large lake in
the northern point of the county of Leitrim, in Ireland, and
has continued therein, or in the adjacent lands, ever since.
He was bred up to work as a labourer, and continued in
very good health, from his birth, until two years ago. About
that time he first felt an unusual pain in his right wrist, which
in August, 1757, began to swell; this obliged him to cease
from his usual labour. In the space of a month more, this
swelling grew into a hardness, like to a bony substance, and
continually shooting on, in December reached up as far as
die elbow; all the muscles continually growing into a bony
substance, and dilating, so that his wrist and arm are as thick
and broad as in the beginning. About the space of a week
after the pain began in his right wrist, he was seized with the
like pain in his left wrist; this has proceeded, in all respects,
in the same manner as in the right arm. The whole substance
of each arm, from the elbow down to the wrist, feels as it
were one solid bone.
The ossification is shooting downwards into the fingers,
and upwards into the elbows, so as already to prevent the
bending the fingers or elbow of the left arm; it has likewise
shot upwards, so as to seize the great muscles of each arm,
between the elbow and shoulders.
The continual pain and dilation of the arms occasioned a
bursting of the skin, and fleshy parts about each elbow, in
November 1757? out of which oozed a thin yellowish humour?